The following United States Patents comprise the closest known prior art:
U.S. Pat. No. 1,994,789 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,420,552 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 2,444,340 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 1,503,421 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,393,409 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,668,718 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,579,670 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,896,511 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,302 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,092,745 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,481,632 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,059,289
As shown in the references enumerated above, the prior art discloses various arrangements for securing and sealing a pipe within a drain body or the like. Many of these prior art arrangements employ a resilient gasket which is interposed between the pipe and the drain to effect a seal therebetween.
Generally speaking, the gasket arrangements known in the prior art are designed for use in conjunction with specific drain components, pipe connections, or the like. Thus each gasket arrangement is unique, and the various gasket arrangements are not interchangeable among the various drain devices which are currently commercially available. As a result, the economies of scale known to standardized, mass produced items in the plumbing field and other fields have not been available to self-sealing drain devices and the like which employ resilient gasket assemblies.